McNair left Orlando without knowing if the Texans will play at the New York Jets on Thanksgiving night. It would be the third game that day and is to be televised by the NFL Network.

“All I know is that the Jets have requested to play us on Thanksgiving, and we've requested it, too,” he said. “Hopefully, they'll respond.”

The Texans won't be appearing on “Hard Knocks,” the HBO summer series that takes viewers behind the scenes at a team's training camp. The Jets will be announced today as the “Hard Knocks” team.

The Texans are being considered for another program, “Six Days to Sunday,” that features two teams preparing for a regular-season game against each other.

Meanwhile, commissioner Roger Goodell came to the spring meetings pushing for a change in the current sudden-death format that had existed since 1974.

The competition committee recommended a change that the owners approved by a 28-4 vote on Tuesday.

Dissimilar Saints

A few of the coaches, including the Saints' Sean Payton, were against the change. Interestingly, New Orleans owner Tom Benson voted for it even though his coach was outspoken against it.

If the new rule had been in place last season, the Saints wouldn't have defeated Minnesota with a field goal on the first series of overtime in the NFC Championship Game.

“I hate it,” Payton said Wednesday.

“It was just surprising because I think I was under the impression the overtime rule was going to be voted on today (Wednesday), so it was kind of one of those back-door deals.”

Under the new format, the team that wins the coin toss wins the game if it scores a touchdown on the opening possession of overtime. If it fails to score or kicks a field goal, the opponent must get a chance to “possess the ball.”

If Team A kicks a field goal and recovers an onside kick, for instance, the game is over because Team B had a chance to possess the ball.

But realistically, Team B will get the ball. If it scores a touchdown, the game is over. If the score is tied after each team has had a possession, sudden death takes over and the first team to score wins.

‘One-year plan'

Minnesota voted against the proposal even though it would have benefited the Vikings against the Saints.

“They are the owners, (and) they can do whatever they want to do,” Vikings coach Brad Childress said.

Childress was asked about applying the change to the regular season.

“I think it's the old analogy that a soldier should never do anything for the first time in combat,” he said. “I wouldn't want to be experiencing that for the first time, mindset-wise, for my guys.

“It's a one-year plan. We'll see how it works. Can we get the genie back in the bottle after it goes to this?”

Before the meetings ended, owners approved nine of 10 rules changes that had been recommended by the competition committee.

Most of the changes involved player safety. The only proposal voted down involved a timing issue at the end of the game.